MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. Moscow hopes that the European Union will stop pandering to a small yet aggressive group of Russophobic countries using the anti-Russian mood to tackle their mercenary tasks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Simerini newspaper.

Political and business circles of the EU more and more often show disgruntlement in connection with the spiral of sanctions ratcheted up by Brussels under pressure from Washington, the minister said. "Moscow hopes the European Union will overcome the inertia of thinking and collect its strength to abandon building up the Russian policy under the principle of the lowest common denominator - stop pandering to a small but aggressive group of Russophobic countries that play the anti-Russian card for solution of mercenary tasks," Lavrov noted.

The Russian minister also gives a high appraisal for the position of Cyprus, which supports normalization of Russia-EU relations as soon as practicable. "The question regarding the audibility of the voice of Cypriots and other pragmatic Europeans in the EU’s Brussels should probably be addressed to representatives of European institutions," Lavrov said.